Netherlands

There were 15,071,191 internet users in the Netherlands (representing 89.5% of the population) in mid-year 2012 (June 30, 2012), according to Internet World Stats. (Internet World Stats, October 2012)

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There were 12.4 million internet users in the Netherlands in 2012, according to Statistics Netherlands. This is 96% of all 12 to 75 year-olds. (Statistics Netherlands, October 2012)

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Of Europe's 372 million unique visitors, Netherlands accounted for 12.0 million unique visitors during August 2011, according to comScore. The country ranked second in engagement with users spending an average of 32.8 hours online in the past month, consuming 3,181 pages online. (comScore, October 2011)

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The Netherlands ranked highest among European countries in terms of frequency of internet visitation with 78.2 visits per visitor in September 2010, according to the findings from a comScore study of internet usage in the Netherlands.

European internet users age 15 years and older accessed the internet on average 58.9 times in September 2010. The Netherlands ranked highest in Europe with 78.2 visits per visitor, nearly 20 more visits per month higher than the European average. The U.K. ranked second with 71.3 visits per visitor, followed by France (68.4 visits per visitor) and Spain (63.7 visits per visitor).

The 11.9 million internet users in the Netherlands age 6 or older spent an average of 31.9 hours online in September 2010, with the Web portals category, which includes Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL, leading the way at 7.2 hours. Instant messengers ranked second with an average of 6.9 hours per user, followed by social networking sites, such as Hyves, Facebook and Twitter, at 3.5 hours per visitors in September. Dutch internet users spent more time on social networks than on E-mail, Multimedia, Online Gaming, Auctions or Classifieds sites.

Wolf Allisat, comScore EVP for International Markets indicated that the Dutch are rather sophisticated internet users, as evidenced by their high frequency of usage and engagement with a variety of different online content. (comScore, October 2010)

UGC and Social Media

A total of 53% of internet users in the Netherlands in 2011 reported they had been active on social networking sites like Hyves, Facebook or Twitter in the previous three months; 88% of them were under the age of 25, according to Statistics Netherlands. Additionally, one in five internet users are active on the business-related social networking site LinkedIn. (Statistics Netherlands, October 2011)

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The Dutch social networking market continues to grow strongly as sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin extend their respective footprints in the market, according to comScore. The social networking market in the Netherlands is one of the few markets remaining where a local social networking player (Hyves) continues to lead Facebook, but that lead is becoming increasingly tenuous.

Another interesting facet to this market is that the Netherlands has the highest internet penetration worldwide for two of the other key global social networking sites, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Despite the overall maturity of the internet market in the Netherlands, the social networking category continues to advance, growing 18% to 11.5 million visitors in March 2011 (representing 96% of the online population). Hyves continues to hold the top position among social networking sites in the market with more than 7.6 million visitors in March, but Facebook is quickly gaining ground, surging 76% in the past year to nearly 6.6 million visitors. Twitter.com and Linkedin.com rank third and fourth, respectively, with more than 3 million visitors and each growing approximately 70% in the past year.

Top five social networking sites in the Netherlands, March 2011 (Total Netherlands, Age 15+, Home & Work Locations):
TOTAL INTERNET: TOTAL AUDIENCE: 11,953,000 (almost unchanged compared to March 2010)
Social networking: 11,490,000 (+18%)
1. Hyves: 7,650,000 (-1%)
2. Facebook.com: 6,556,000 (+76%)
3. Twitter.com: 3,207,000 (+67%)
4. Linkedin.com: 3,118,000 (+70%)
5. Windows Live Profile: 2,769,000 (-5%)

(comScore, April 2011)

TThere were 12.4 million internet users in the Netherlands in 2012, according to Statistics Netherlands. This is 96% of all 12 to 75 year-olds. Six in ten internet users had used mobile devices to go online in the three months before the survey. This share has tripled since 2007. In 2011 only 50% of the internet users used a mobile device to go online.

The use of the mobile internet increased particularly among young people in the 12 to 25 age bracket. About 86% regularly used mobiles to go online in 2012, compared to 21% in 2007.  Mobile internet use also grew fast among the other age brackets. The 64 to 75 year-old internet users have the lowest share of just 21% in mobile internet use.

The mobile internet users prefer devices that are small and handy, such as the mobile phone, which is used by nearly half (47%) of all mobile internet users. Two thirds indicated they use them almost daily. Laptops (34%) and tablet computers (19%) are also regularly used to go online.

Mobile internet users using the small devices, such as mobile phones or handhelds, mainly do so to stay in touch with people. Almost three quarters use email and over two thirds participate in the social networks Hyves, Facebook and Twitter. Reading news and newspapers (62%) and fun - playing games and listening to music - (58%) are the favourite uses.

Four in ten internet users do not use mobile devices. Almost three quarters of them (73%) indicated that they do not need the internet outside their home or work. Furthermore, 16% mentioned the huge expense as their reason not to use mobiles to go online. (Statistics Netherlands, October 2012)